So I have been wanting to make really cute cake pops for awhile now and finally Kathryn and I got the chance to. We had the cookbook but Bakerella post it on her website as well. (http://www.bakerella.com/youll-want-to-gobble-these-right-up/). Trying this recipe, I learned a few things I wish I had known beforehand.

Here is what the turkeys turned out as…

Here’s what I would have liked to have known before:

1) When making any sort of cake pop, you can’t just stick cake on the stick and then dip it into the chocolate. The cake will fall off the stick and die in the chocolate and you will cry. Apparently the secret is to dip the stick into the chocolate, then the cake ball. Then let it harden like glue to keep the cake on the stick and dip it into the chocolate. Well, we didn’t know this beforehand and as a result, our turkeys ended up stick-less. LESSON LEARNED!

2) Bakerella calls for chocolate covered expresso beans. However, the only chocolate covered expresso beans I found were either a) so dark you wouldn’t be able to see the turkey’s black eyes or b) way expensive. Not wanting to spend $40 on cake pop turkey’s, I opted against the Trader Joe’s chocolate covered expresso beans and decided to try out Milk Duds. A box of Milk Duds was more like $1.50 instead of $5+

3) I didn’t have a edible ink black pen. If you already have one on hand, great, use it! But I did not. One of the few things in my kitchen I don’t have. Michael’s sells a box of four colored edible ink pens for $9. Having no coupon or need for the other three colored pens in the pack, I skipped this ingredient. Since the only use of the pen were the two tiny dot eyes, I decided to use a fine tipped Sharpie instead and not tell anyone… Shhh!